Does Facebook Need to Improve How it Measures Engagement?

Could the way Facebook measures engagement be improved? The folks at Ticular think so. They expressed their suggested improvements in what has become standard format these days -- an infographic.

What Factors Contribute to Facebook Engagement?

Overall, Ticular thinks that the way Facebook currently calculates engagement doesn’t make sense -- total engagement (likes + comments + shares), divided by number of fans, times 100. Instead, they note that comments, likes and multimedia should carry different weights in calculating engagement. As well, the formula should factor in the number of times a Facebook user replays a video; when users view photos in full-screen mode; the number of times users tag content should be included, among other things.

Better Metrics or Better Management?

In essence, a brand’s engagement should reward and penalize based on what users do and don’t do with their content. On one hand I agree -- there’s so much nuance that can occur within a Facebook page that even complex algorithms cannot account for. But on the other hand, it’s a Facebook page -- it’s not nuclear missile training. The need to be exact, not only isn’t expected, it’s not needed. Brand managers should be able to glean enough information from both quantitative and qualitative measures.

Besides, brand managers should be active enough to not have to rely on metrics alone to understand how engaged they are. If you have a lot of comments on your page, but they are negative -- users are engaged, but probably not in the right way. If you need a Facebook equation to tell you that, perhaps you have bigger issues to sort out first.

Regardless, Facebook should look to evolve its calculations alongside user behavior so that it can remain as accurate as needed. What do you think?